The History of Nasielsk and the Jewish Community

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The Jewish community of Nasielsk dates to the 16th century. Consisting at first of just a few families, this small community grew throughout the 18th century until, by 1827, it numbered 2,200 people, two-thirds of Nasielsk’s total population. As part of greater Polish society, Nasielsk’s Jewish citizens established an artisan guild, thrived in crafts and trade, and built a tannery and plants for the manufacture of clothing and pearl buttons. 

 

In the early 20th century, more than half of Nasielsk’s inhabitants were Jewish. These five hundred families—approximately 3,000 men, women, and children—lived diverse lives: as farmers, tradespeople, merchants, students, scholars, artists, workers, soldiers, and itinerant storytellers. The community included poor people and rich, deeply devout and proudly secular. Between 1939 and 1945, all but a few of Nasielsk’s Jewish citizens were brutally murdered by the German Nazis. For more than four hundred years they had survived and flourished as an integral part of Nasielsk’s history.